YouTube “Journey”

This is a repost from my business blog: http://www.socialfire.ca/blog2/37-youtube-journey

The band Journey with lead singer Arnel Pineda

Is there anyone out there who doesn’t love the song “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey?  I am sure there are a few, but most people I know love it.  It is a ballad for the ages, and Steve Perry has a fantastic voice.

The story of Journey’s current resurgence in popularity and the discovery of their current lead singer all starts with YouTube

In the 90′s Steve Perry split from Journey permanently and the band was in limbo for many years.  Hiring lead singers then splitting up.  They did a few tours with these replacements but nothing clicked.

Then, in June 2007, Neal Schon of Journey, saw a video of Arnel Pineda of the Philippines doing covers of Journey songs with his band the Zoo.  He was invited to audition in California and on Dec 5 2007 he was officially announced as the new lead singer of Journey!

Arnel had a long and moderately successful music career in Asia.  He had some successes – recording with Warner Brothers in 1999, and low points – living on the streets for a couple years as a teenager.  He has been the lead singer for Journey now for 5 years, their latest album, Revelations, went Platinum and the band is excited about the chemistry they have and are looking forward to the future.

The moral of the story.  It is astounding how social media has made the world so much smaller.  A few search terms and a little patience and you can find people who resonate with you anywhere in the world.  Arnel probably never would have been discovered if it wasn’t for the reach of YouTube.

It seems that the smaller your niche, the more power social media holds for you.

If you have a rare illness, the internet is often the first place you find clues, answers and peers.  If you are an artist with a flare for online presentation – you can find your audience.

To use social media effectively, to the point of outrageous success like Arnel Pineda or Gangnam Style is not a formula that you can easily replicate.  Each success is easy to analyze in retrospect, but impossible to predict.  It reminds me of the books Outliers or Blue Ocean Strategy – both analyze success stories with the impeccable perspective of hindsight.  But is it possible to use any of those lessons to create your own unimaginable success?

All those stories are out there – the carrot on the stick.  Be creative, keep trying, be true to yourself and put yourself out there again and again and again.

To see a remarkable video of Arnel Pineda and Steve Perry singing together (Steve in a video – not on stage), to appreciate how remarkable the match is, watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EvRZBJIKf4

Delicious

Do you have a thousand Internet bookmarks?  Do you struggle to keep track of the cool resources and articles you find on the web?  Delicious is for you!

It is an bookmarking tool that lets you easily organize 100′s bookmarks with tags.  The more tags you use the more meaningful your lists are.  It has a plugin for Firefox, so it can fully replace the built-in Bookmark functionality.  And even cooler – you share your bookmark list with others.

I do find the Delicious website a bit clunky but the plug-in is amazing and my bookmarks are easily accessible, sorted in a meaningful all the time and saved online in the cloud (so not computer dependent).

Here is a graphic of my tag cloud for all my bookmarks:

And if you are curious – you can check out my complete list of Delicious bookmarks on the website: http://delicious.com/temberk

A very cool tool for those who use the Internet like a library, coach or daily newspaper.

Warp drive may be possible

I am a scientist at heart – and sometimes long for the physics lab days of university…

This article was originally published on SPACE.com by Clara Moskowitz: http://www.space.com/17628-warp-drive-possible-interstellar-spaceflight.html

HOUSTON — A warp drive to achieve faster-than-light travel — a concept popularized in television’s Star Trek — may not be as unrealistic as once thought, scientists say. A warp drive would manipulate space-time itself to move a starship, taking advantage of a loophole in the laws of physics that prevent anything from moving faster than light.

A concept for a real-life warp drive was suggested in 1994 by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre; however, subsequent calculations found that such a device would require prohibitive amounts of energy. Now physicists say that adjustments can be made to the proposed warp drive that would enable it to run on significantly less energy, potentially bringing the idea back from the realm of science fiction into science. “There is hope,” Harold “Sonny” White of NASA’s Johnson Space Center said here Friday (Sept. 14) at the 100 Year Starship Symposium, a meeting to discuss the challenges of interstellar spaceflight.

Warping space-time

An Alcubierre warp drive would involve a football-shape spacecraft attached to a large ring encircling it. This ring, potentially made of exotic matter, would cause space-time to warp around the starship, creating a region of contracted space in front of it and expanded space behind.  Meanwhile, the starship itself would stay inside a bubble of flat space-time that wasn’t being warped at all. “Everything within space is restricted by the speed of light,” explained Richard Obousy, president of Icarus Interstellar, a non-profit group of scientists and engineers devoted to pursuing interstellar spaceflight.

“But the really cool thing is space-time, the fabric of space, is not limited by the speed of light.” With this concept, the spacecraft would be able to achieve an effective speed of about 10 times the speed of light, all without breaking the cosmic speed limit.

The only problem is, previous studies estimated the warp drive would require a minimum amount of energy about equal to the mass-energy of the planet Jupiter. But recently White calculated what would happen if the shape of the ring encircling the spacecraft was adjusted into more of a rounded donut, as opposed to a flat ring. He found in that case, the warp drive could be powered by a mass about the size of a spacecraft like the Voyager 1 probe NASA launched in 1977.

Furthermore, if the intensity of the space warps can be oscillated over time, the energy required is reduced even more, White found. “The findings I presented today change it from impractical to plausible and worth further investigation,” White told SPACE.com. “The additional energy reduction realized by oscillating the bubble intensity is an interesting conjecture that we will enjoy looking at in the lab.”

Laboratory tests

White and his colleagues have begun experimenting with a mini version of the warp drive in their laboratory. They set up what they call the White-Juday Warp Field Interferometer at the Johnson Space Center, essentially creating a laser interferometer that instigates micro versions of space-time warps. “We’re trying to see if we can generate a very tiny instance of this in a tabletop experiment, to try to perturb space-time by one part in 10 million,” White said. He called the project a “humble experiment” compared to what would be needed for a real warp drive, but said it represents a promising first step.

And other scientists stressed that even outlandish-sounding ideas, such as the warp drive, need to be considered if humanity is serious about traveling to other stars. “If we’re ever going to become a true spacefaring civilization, we’re going to have to think outside the box a little bit, we’re going to have to be a little bit audacious,” Obousy said.

Ownership of an idea = success

This article was originally posted on my business blog: www.socialfire.ca/jblog/ownershipandsuccess

Have you tried to implement programs for your employees that didn’t deliver the results you were hoping?  I am mainly referring to team building or community involvement programs with a goal of engaging employees and boosting morale – but the lesson could apply to anything.

I have found that companies with young employees are the most creative in getting employee buy-in for extra-curricular programs.  It is probably because they are least invested in their career and aren’t afraid to say no, or just avoid opportunities, that more seasoned employees might feel they “should’ participate in.  If the employer is determined to get high levels of participation and engagement, they need to figure out the formula that works with their staff.

Some stories of ideas that do work:

Have your employees plan the program.  Give them a goal or an objective, and a budget, and let them run with it.  Trial and error, seeing your own ideas in action and being able to take credit for successes are very effective motivators.  If you want employees to volunteer as a group, let them pick the organization and plan an event.  Support them with time and resources to deliver an impact and watch them feel the pride.   This is completely different then saying: “Our company supports the xxx charity because it aligns with our values, please contribute to our fundraising drive.”

Getting staff to “invest” beforehand.  For example, putting on a ski-day – pay $20 to sign up and if you attend you get your $20 back.  The employer found that if it was free and easy to back out of, participation levels were very low despite up-front promises.  Getting people to put ‘skin in the game’, however minor, increases their commitment.

Lead by example – the management needs to walk the talk.  If you are going to hold a fundraising drive or a company picnic – the management need to be there with enthusiasm.  They need to donate themselves, roll up their sleeves to get dirty or volunteer to sit in the dunk tank.  Giving a program lip-service and expecting those ‘below you’ to be enthusiastic about it, is generally unrealistic.

Notice I didn’t talking about ‘making it fun’ or ‘putting a carrot on a stick’.  Although those concepts are important in certain situations, the key to making a social program successful is ownership.  The management and the employees need to feel and promote ownership of a program.  And this ingredient is required as a first step in program development – not as a later inclusion when people notice the lack of involvement.  Ownership of an idea leads to a commitment to see it succeed.

Happy Birthday to me

Yesterday I turned 40.  According to some, I am now officially 1/2 way to the end.

There used to be a special kind of person who remembered everyone’s birthday every year.  They always called or sent a card – they made sure at least someone remembered you.  I always wanted to be one of those people, but I never remembered to notice birthdays.  Heck, there were a few years that I forgot to call my parents on their birthday.   That would be the difference between those special people and me :S

But now there is Facebook.  And it reminds everyone of everyone’s birthday.  And now all you need to it write Happy Birthday ‘on their wall’ and you can feel like one of those special people.  But how do you pick who to say happy birthday to?  Do you do it for every single ‘friend’?  Only people you like?  Maybe just randomly?  Regardless – the deluge of birthday wishes, with the occasional compliment or poem is actually quite sweet.  As easy as it, I find it touching.  It is making ‘that special  person who always remembers’ something of the past though – kind of like the mixed tapes you used to make for someone when you were flirting with them.

And as a 40 year old, I do feel a little old.  I mainly wonder if I stand out like a sore thumb, or rather like a cougar, at the bar when I go out dancing once in a blue moon.  Or if I can still pretend that I am 20ish and noone notices…

I love my birthday celebration, I love surprises and apparently I will be surprised tomorrow, eek, I am excited.  I love my birthday because it is the only time I get the world to revolve around me.  This is what “I” want for dinner.  This is what “I” want to do today.  Normally I make sure everyone else is happy first – but today (well yesterday, and I will string it out to tomorrow as well) I am a lot more selfish than usual.

So thank for all the birthday wishes.  And Happy Birthday to you too (take it early or belated), because even with Facebook, I will probably forget to wish you Happy Birthday.  And here is to another 40 years